Week 2

The Raider cross country team is back in action, just completeing the second week of competition. Saturday September 5 was the Canton Invite, a smaller local invite and last weekend was the monster Woodruff Invite at storied Detwiller Park.

Canton was a great start for the Raiders, placing 2 on the medal stand in the Varsity race and one suprise medal in the frosh race with Austin McGraugh. Kevin Eades ran a courageous race to place 6th and Alec Gonzalez ran the race of the meet to place 8th. I was not counting on him running so fast this year and this could prove to be the real advantage that we needed to win the conference and advance to the state finals. Other notable varsity racers were Brant Watson, Gage VanOrder, and Cody Margetis who all ran PRs in the first meet of the year on a hilly course.

The Woodruff Invite is a huge meet with over 100 teams competing in 3 different classes. We are the middle one, AA, and we ran pretty well to finish 12th out of 32. That was with out team leader Hugh Gill who will be back in action next week at the EP Invite. Six out of seven kids ran PRs, Kevin Eades just off his as he was out a little too fast. He did hang on to finish 16 and medal, as did wonderkid Alec Gonzalez running 16:15 to run another huge personal best. Only top 7 are allowed to compete in the team race, but our other 8 runners talked me into letting them run the open and they soon found out why I was against it. The race started with over 850 competitors at 1 in the afternoon! They did have fun though being that they were never able to run fast enough to hurt cause there were too many people in their way ; )

We have the weekend off to prepare for our big home invite that will feature 7 of the top 10 teams in our sectional. Fortunately for us the sectional race is held at home which could be another small advantatge. The boys have been pretty fired up since the preseason rankings came up and didnt even give us a mention. I centaintly believe that we are a top 12 team in the state with Gill running, but we wil have to get out of a very tough sectional to do that.



That is all the exciting news to report from Central Illinios. Yesterday was probably one of the most inspiring coaching moments of my career. We had a real ****buster of a workout, 4 x (4x400) with 1 min recovery on reps and 3 min on sets. The workout was aimed at getting a fast rhythm in the legs so we did it on the track on a fairly hot day. The kids responded like champs (they love 400's for some reason). The teammanship is like nothing I have ever seen at EP. They were cheering each other on and doing chants at the start of each one. It gave me goosebumps to know that it has only taken me 3 years to get a real xc team together at EP!


I will make another update after our home meet next weekend, hopefully with lots more good news! GO RAIDERS

A New Season

Another cross season is upon us, and this one promises to be to be good! This is the most talented, prepared and deepest team East Peoria has had in a long time. The boys have put in more miles over the last 3 months than I certainly ever did in high school. We had a new challenge this summer, starting a 500, 750 and 1000 mile club over a 12 week period. They had till September 1 to get them in and I will have 5 over 500 and 2 over 750!

Yesterday was the 3rd annual Run-A-Thon, our fundraiser that is a continuous one mile loop at the course which the boys run for an hour (with out watches) and raise money for every mile they run. This was the last weekend we will have off before racing starts next week at the Canton Invite. The boys ran awsome! Kevin Eades smashed the record running 9.9 miles, Gill 9.5, Alex Cortes 9 (the biggest suprise of all) and a whole host of others at 8.5. I was really pleased with everybodys effort and on top of it they raised enough money to really look after us for the season.

The real suprise was the number of parents and supporters that showed up to cheer on the team yesterday. It is the first time since I arrived here 3 years ago that I had over half the teams parents out to watch. In my opinion that goes a lot further than any big race or 10 mile hour run. The class of freshman and sophmores in particular have a really supportive group of parents that I hope will stay involved.

Like I said our first race of the season in next weekend. Dyestat Il came out with their rankings and although I think we are a top 15 team in the state we didnt even get a mention. Thats the best thing that could have happened to us as the team is really fired up. Its not just me that wants the team to do well and not just one or two individuals, but the whole team is motivated as a group. Ah, the hard part is finally over, it only took me 3 years!!!

I will post pics from the fundraiser along with picks from next weeks race on my next blog. My running has had no signifigant developements in case anybody cares. Ive been running a little on the roads as the uneven surface of the course really bothers it. Ive been biking quite a bit to help me sleep, so there you go.

Thanks for reading and Go Raiders!

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Summer Swing

We are officially in full summer training mode here in East Peoria and things couldn't be going better! This is the 8th week of our 10 week summer training program and the team is finally feeling the weight of the mileage. Senior Hugh Gill will definately hit the 750 mile mark that I challenged him to and Kevin Eades, Brant Watson, Alex Cortes and Gage VanOrder will hit the 500 mile mark they set out to conquer on June 1. The boys are back to school in two weeks, which is also when we transition from summer long runs, tempo intervals and hill training to more specific race-pace intervals with rest, shorter hills and long runs at an easier pace.

It has been really nice to have a motivated group that gets together on a daily basis, something that was missing after the seniors left last year. I have been meeting them 3-4 times weekly and they get together most every other day on their own. Sundays have probably been the high light of summer training. We have a 10.3 mile loop from my place that is situated on a 1200 meter climb that is no joke. We leave heading down the hill and do the loop that has two other big hills in it. After the first 3 miles we try to keep the pace under 7 mpm for the next 8, which finishes up the big one. One of my other big challenges to the boys was for someone to break my hill record of 3:06 which Gill finally crushed last week, running 2:50! Afterwards I we have pancakes and very spirited gamef of ping pong, pool and Halo2.

On another front, the local track club held their first summer Youth DevelopementTrack Program this week with much success. The majority of the 100 plus kids that attended were from inner city day camps and have never had any experience with track and field. The camp focused on 6 different diciplines for 20 minutes each. That went on Monday to Thursday and finished with a track meet on Friday. I volunteered to run the distance station, and although I wanted to pull my hair out at times, we had a lot of fun. I just want to say that there is a lot of talent out there and there is a lot of energy, they just need to find some direction. I am looking forward to getting a lot more kids out for next year and running them even harder!

Thats all I have for you now. Looking forward to watching the world champs that are coming up. The running is going ok but the foot still aches. Not sure what is going to happen with this thing. Im just trying to keep positive and cross my fingers that it will all work out. Thanks for reading and Go Raiders!

Well, the season has finally come to a close and in a dramatic one none-the-less. The girls closed the season with a 10th place finish at the state meet in the 4x800 and the boys finished on a high note with one state qualifier and a boat load of pr's.

On the girls side of things we qualified for the state meet in the 4x800 running a season best of 10:02 to finish second at the sectional meet. Emily Gustafson, who was sick at the time, then came back to win the 1600. Our time coming into the meet placed us 16th overall but I knew the girls had at least 10 seconds to drop once they got into the heat of competition, and they did just that. Freshman stud Autumn Andrews who was running only her third race of the year due to an on going foot injury lead of with a monster first leg of 2:21, handing off in the lead! Rookie Rachel Innes then held her ground running 2:29 and maintained our first position to hand off to the other sophmore Ashley Schmitt. Ashely ran for her life and kept the stick in the top seven, running her fastest leg of the year clocking 2:35. Veteran Emily Gustafson moved up 3 positions over the last lap to crush our season best running 9:49 and qualifying for the finals by 1 place!

The finals went as expected for the relay, other than Autumn Andrews running 2:21 to hand off in first place. Innes and Schmitt held on to tie their pbs from the day before and Emily Gustafson got the baton just a bit to far behind to get us back in medal contention. They did run another season best and the second fastest time in school history of 9:48. Although they were a little bummed that they missed a medal by one place, I think that they know in their hearts that they ran as good as they could have. Hopefully it will be motivation to train like crazy this summer ; )

Emily Gustafson came back off the relay to win her heat of the 1600, running 5:16. The final did not go quite as planned as she is still learning how to run a championship type mile. There was a lot of bumping and when the pace picked up at the 800 she never really responded. She still hung on for a 7th place finish which was good enough for her first All State medal!

On the boys side of things Hugh Gill was the suprise of the year. He ran a personal best of 4:28 to qualify for the state meet! We knew he was in sub 4:30 shape it was just a matter of being in the right race on the right day. Coming into the state meet he was seeded 20th out of 30 and top 12 make the finals. We drew heat 1 and the only advise I could give him was pin your ears back and run with the leaders, and he did just that. He finished 4th in his heat in a time of 4:29 to sneak into the finals with the last time! The finals went pretty much as planned and our plan was to stay in the back for 800 and then get into medal position at some point so we could at least say we went for it. Hugh managed to get into 8th place but with 300 to go two kids got around him and he ran a hard fought 10th place, one spot from the podium : ( But I believe it is a great way to finish off a hard earned season and build into the last summer of his high school career. More importantly it brings a new level of commitment to the team and there has been such a remarkable shift in attitude with this group over the last 9 months.

That is the short story long folks. I just finished up with a long week of helping make the Steamboat Classic a world class event. I havent been to bed before 1 am for the last week so I am looking forward to a few days of peace and quiet. I did a little running with the boys last week, their first real week of summer training. Im still grinding it out on the bike as well when I get mornings away from things. When I get results and stories from the race on practice Wednesday I will post them as I havent gotten a chance to talk to any of the boys. I did see that most of them ran really well, especially the ones that ran the 15k!

Go Raiders!

Championship Season Is Here!

A lot has happened since I last updated everybody. The distance boys are running prs every meet, most of my best female distance runners are hurt, I am back to running a bit, I helped put on a ultra for troubled troubled people and my truck was trashed on prom night!

First off, anybody that decides to run for 150 miles one a muddy 10 mile loop at 15 minute per mile pace has serious mental issues. Let me do the math for you, thats 50 hours of running...MENTAL! A friend fo mine puts on the McNaughtin Ultra so I decided to go out and help. It ended up raining over an inch the night of and all day during the first day. So needless to say it was an absolute nightmare. Fortunately nobody suffered any major injuries, just a lot of "my legs started cramping after the first 24 hours." MENTAL.

We have had qute a few meets over the last week and it would take an hour to update everybodys successes. Just a few shout outs. Freshman stud Kevin Eades has gotten his 2 mile time down to 10:20 and I see a sub 10 in his very near future. Hugh Gill has his 3200 time down to 10:05 and we are hoping for a sub 9:50 which will qualify him for the state meet. Sophmore goof Cody Margetis has found his niche running a huge split to win our fresh/soph meet running a 6 second pr of 56! Probably one of the highlights of the year. David Blackford (pictured below leading the chase pack for second) ran a big pr of 2:04 in the 800. Soph Alex Cortes got nipped at the Tim Broe F/S Invite for the win running 4:48. To make it short I now have 6 sub 5 minute milers and hopefully a 7th Friday night.

The girls has been a whole different story. Cassie Lohmeier has been battling IT band issues and is done for the year. Emily Gustafson is running well but has a serious calf problem and the conference meet is 48 hours away. Rachel Innes, the suprise of the year, has a strained lower back and is iffy for Thursday nights conference meet. On a positive, freshman stud Autumn Andrews' foot is healing and she ran a big pb Friday on 2:27 and 61. Ashley Schmitt also ran great last week, running a pb of 5:44.

The big story of the week though was me waking up to find my truck trashed the morning after Prom. After doing a little investigating, it appears the girls dates must have been really boring because they decided to pay me a visit. As if seran wrap and mushed bananas werent enough, they thought a bag of flower in a rain storm would be a nice way to cap the night off! After a little scalding, I did tell them that I am honored they were thinking of poor coach Broe on the biggest social night of their lives. Ah, high school girls ; )

Thats all I got for you now. I have gotten the runs up to 5-6 miles but the foot pain continues. We now officially in championship season so I will keep everybody posted on all our Raider success!

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Hello again everybody. Sorry it took me a few days to get this out there, but Ive been busy moving and doing the Easter thing.

Last week was the beginning of the outdoor season at the Moline Invite and the kids did not dissappoint. We were short quite a few, but those that ran performed great. Although she was sick, Emily Gustafson (seen in photos) ran a season pr of 5:22 in the mile and a great lead-off leg of the 3rd place 4x800. She is finally starting to see the benefits of consistent longer runs over the last year. I am hoping to see her down under 5:10 by the end of the season. Cassie Lohmeier ran a 2:30 anchor leg of the 4x800 for her first race of the season. She is coming off an IT band injurt all winter, but is still capable of placing in the State Finals and helping our 4x800 team win a title. She also won a close 3200 Tuesday at our conference triangular meet. Suprise sophmore Rachel Innes also ran a great leg on the 4x800 (2:35) then coming back and placing second in her first outdoor 800 ever. She also ran a top conference time of 57 for her first 3oo hurdle race. More importantly, she stayed vertical for the whole race! Ashley Schmitt opened with a 2:40 leg of the relay and ran a pb in the mile of 5:50. And finally, Autumn Andrews opened her outdoor season with a 228 and 62 after a winter layoff with an ongoing foot problem.

The boys also ran great last week. Junior star Hugh Gill started his season off with a win in the 3200, running a big pb of 10:18. State qualifying is 9:49, which is what we are working towards. Keving Eades, state xc qualifier, got his first races of the year in after an injury as welll. He won his heat of the 3200 and the 1600. Freshman Cody Lacross ran a pr in the mile of 5:41 and ran 12:00 for his first 3200 ever. What is great about Cody is that he is the only kid out of 13 that voluntarily runs the 2 mile for me every meet!

That is all I really have to report on the track side of things. I am still at my 30 min a day and the foot pain is still lingering. Deep throbbing and aching would be another way to put it, but I am trying to be positive. Im headed back to see the Doc in a few weeks, but am assuming that I will get the old standard "Its gonna take a while to heal up". Im really looking forward fort the warm up this week so I can get back on the bike and start burning all my anxious energy.

We will be racing 3 times this week and twice next so I hope to have plenty of good news to report. Go Raiders!

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Indoor State Meet

The Lady Raider track team came one step closer to becoming a threat for a relay title Friday night at the Illinois State Indoor Championships. Coming in as the 4th seed in the 4x800, we ended finishing 12th against a very strong field. Senior stud Emily Gustafson gave a great lead off leg handing off in 3rd place. Rookie sophmore Rachel Innes ran a superb leg, holding 4th position and running a PB of 2:36. In her first track season Junior Marley Brimberry, filling in for an injured Autumn Andrews, was a little unnerved by the energy of the crowd and the stiff competition. The hard working sophmore Ashley Schmitt got the baton quit a bit out of the competition but still ran a PR leg of 2:43 to put us in 12th.

Emily Gustafson, seeded second, came back to finish 4th in the mile. After waiting around for a 3 hour delay, Emily got out great. Three laps into the race she got a little bump and didn't respond when the pace picked up. From there she fell back to 8th and trailed the leaders by 30 meters. But with 100 meters to go she found a gear shes never had before. With a freshman-like crazy big finish she battled back to fourth place, just missing third. Afterward she could read my body language and said "I cant believe how much I had left!" and I wont repeat my reply. Needless to say the consistent winter training is paying off and she needs to start learning how to race with all the new tools she has developed. She did run another school record of 5:22 and got a great feel for what it is like to race at the next level.

I am still putting away with my running. Just 15-20 minutes a day as the achey pain in my left big toe is giving me problems. My podiatrist, Dr. Grady, says it is still going to take some time to clear it all up as it was so full of scar tissue for so long.

We are headed west to the Moline Invite next Saturday for our first outdoor meet of the season. I am really looking forward to seeing how junior Hugh Gill and some of the others will run after a consistent stretch of winter training. Coming off a winter of IT band tendonitis, junior star Cassie Lohmeier will also make her 2009 track debut in the 3200. Freshman ace Autumn Andrews will also be back running after missing the state indoor meet with tendonitis in her foot.

Hopefully next time I write we will have banked a wholebunch of prs and my foot will be feeling a little better! Go Raiders

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